Why We're Seeing a Persian Gulf War Rerun; Are They Casualties?

Published: October 13, 1994

To the Editor:

After three tours of duty in Vietnam and one in the Persian Gulf, I am convinced that every war breeds discontent among a small percentage of its survivors. The soldier believes he or she is scarred emotionally, as well as physically, and deserves recognition. If so acknowledged, the soldier has, in his or her mind, earned the right to be considered one of Anna Quindlen's "Casualties of War" (column, Oct. 5).

What fuels the search for recognition, and now compensation, are unsubstantiated claims by presumed victims that whatever ails them now was due to exposure to something then and there. In Vietnam it was Agent Orange; in Desert Storm it is "gulf war syndrome." Anecdotal reports of "toxic semen" defy imagination, let alone science. Likewise, birth defects, unless compared for incidence to other populations, cannot be blamed on the gulf war.

Three years ago the Air Force completed its extensive study of Agent Orange in a project called Operation Ranch Hand. The incidence of malignant neoplasm (cancer) was lower in the group exposed to the defoliant than in controls! Yes, it was a Department of Defense study, but it was conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, and the results have not been challenged scientifically.

Whether the "gulf war syndrome" survives as a disease complex will depend upon time and scientific scrutiny. If it does, I predict it will be relegated to the psychiatric literature. KENNETH G. SWAN, M.D. Newark, Oct. 5, 1994 The writer is a professor of surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.